Parents embrace mass school closure
Published:Saturday | March 14, 2020 | 12:06 AMJason Cross/Gleaner Writer
Some parents have welcomed the Government’s order that all schools be closed for an initial 14-day period because of the snowballing threat from COVID-19.
The shutdown takes effect today.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed approximately 5,000 people globally and has infected more than 140, 000 since December 2019 when the first patient presented symptoms in China.
At least two cases have been confirmed in Jamaica.
Despite the sudden notice, parents like Simone Wright have given the Government the thumbs up for scrapping classes as a precaution.
Wright, who has two children attending St Aloysius Primary School in downtown Kingston, told The Gleaner yesterday that she hoped that her sixth-grader son would use the break to study for his Primary Exit Profile exams, two sittings of which were scheduled for later this month.
“I won’t be at home to ensure he takes up his book, but I will be sending him to his grandparents, so I just hope they will put in the work as I would have done to get him prepared,” she said.
TAKING DAUGHTER TO WORK
Others like Paulette Smalling, a mechanic, have not been able to arrange for supervision. She said that she would be taking her third-grader daughter with her to work because she had nowhere to go.
“No one will be at home, so I will have to take her with me. At home, anything can happen if she is alone there,” Smalling shared.
But Barbara Henry was unbothered because her granddaughter would have help with lessons from her teacher mom.
“I am not sure if the days away will affect my granddaughter because her mother will help her out with the work,” Henry told The Gleaner.
“Personally, I am not scared of the virus, because it is like a man who seh him afraid of duppy and don’t know it. I don’t know the virus, so I can’t be afraid of it,” she added.
Tracyann Tafffe-Thompson, one of two guidance counsellors at the institution, said students, especially those in grade six, will not be home idle as they have been issued with piles and piles of homework.